He mentions that “transmogrification (cosmetic changes), private Crucible matches, and gun skins” are all on their radar, and the topic will be updated weekly.

Spotlight Improvements & Additions

Joel’s note:

The vault will see its size increase respectably, which will help lessen the strain on weapons, armor, and consumables prior to HoW. This is a welcome addition, though perhaps not a permanent fix. Unfortunately, handling consumables, shaders, and other miscellaneous items is still a bother. They all occupy the same General slots, which are always going to be in high demand.

Colorblind support is wonderful for the many Guardians who struggle with this handicap. Assuming it works as implemented, look for loot and shields to be very clearly distinguishable for the three named categories of colorblindness.

Similarly useful are the Audio Controls being patched in. Being able to control the volume for various aspects of the game will be a godsend for those without high-quality mics or tolerance of listening to Dinklebot talk. Toggling the music on and off will be nice for users without any mics, who need to hear their teammates talk through their speaker system, and for those simply looking to enjoy a quieter Destiny experience. It’d be a shame to leave it off for long though, with Destiny’s great soundtrack.

Item Lock will eliminate those unlucky scenarios where you accidentally and absentmindedly delete something important. Nice blues like The Stranger’s Rifle or a Shoot to Loot Scout will be safe from your single-minded OCD; this was a no-brainer on Bungie’s part.

Item Lock now allows players to prevent gear and weapon items from being accidentally dismantled

The purple ball has been reborn in the tower as an interactive sphere with a parallaxed energy core that grows with object velocity and tints based off time of day

Weapons

Joel: A few bugs specific to retaining ammo are being patched, and Pocket Infinity is receiving a non-specific buff to its general reliability – whatever “edge case conditions” are, your guess is as good as ours. 4th Horseman is also seeing a buff to its “original intended values”. Whether this will make it viable is currently up in the air.

White Nail is receiving a fix! …just not the one you wanted. No longer will you be able to proc the perk on “Immune” targets, such as the Devil Walker’s leg. Unfortunate! Performance Bonus is being fine-tuned to be less reliable on Fusion Rifles, likely anticipatory to Guardians finding a way to work around the Special Ammo drought. Ice Breaker is receiving similar treatment; it will default to 0 ammo on respawn.

General

Fixed a bug that caused a player to lose ammo when switching weapons while dead

Fixed a bug where ammo consumables did not reliably replenish ammo

Pocket Infinity behavior is less likely to fail during edge case conditions

Fixed an issue introduced in 1.1.1 that allowed Ice Breaker to persist ammo after respawn

World

Players can now choose to wear their helmets in social spaces

Quest loot pyramid baubles are now easier to spot

Added Quest indicator badges to the Tower when a Quest is either completed and ready to turn in

Increased Crota’s Bane Reputation rewards on Eris Morn’s bounties

Fixed a bug where Major Thralls had two jaws and two left hands

Fixed a bug where player’s equipped items did not receive experience from completing missions

Fixed a bug where the Black Garden Level 30 Featured Story was incorrectly listed at Level 28

Fixed a bug where Heavy Ammo consumables were not available for purchase from Xûr

Strikes

Joel: Bungie is taming Mars this week, reducing the health on Valus Ta’Aurc by a hefty 33%, and dampening shield strength on the pesky Psion Flayers. Expect to see less Major combatants too. Whether or not you still decide to cower behind boxes in the Nightfall is your call.

Cereberus Vae III

Valus Ta’Aruc‘s strength has been reduced by 33%

Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Valus Ta’Aurc fight

Dust Palace

Dust Palace: Reduced the number of Major combatants in the Psion Flayer fight

Dust Palace: Lowered the strength on the Psion Flayers’ shields

Raids

Joel: A lot of long-awaited bug tune-ups in the list. Most notably, the Atheon and Gatekeeper encounters should go much more smoothly with Minotaurs and Gates that behave as intended, and an Aegis bubble that doesn’t allow even a smidgen of splash damage from Atheon’s glitchy Torch Cannon.

For Crota’s End, be advised you should now have a more forgiving exit window for getting out after that second or third kneel. Crota will supposedly not swing his sword until he is “fully standing”. This doesn’t affect his invincibility frames, but might encourage you to try to squeeze in one more sword, knowing you can get out while the big oaf clambers to his feet. Also, the god-slaying Sword should stick around with much more reliability – a full 30 seconds after you pick it up with no chance of disappearing after killing the Swordbearer. Neat!

Vault of Glass

Vault of Glass will no longer display a highlighted activity notification despite players best efforts to remove it

Fixed a bug where splash damage could penetrate the Aegis bubble

Shield Relic melee attacks now land Minotaurs more consistently

Improved issues associated with walking through the teleport

Crota’s End

Crota will now wait until fully standing before a sword attack

Fixed a bug where the sword immediately despawned after killing a swordbearer

Swords will now last a full 30 seconds after being picked up

PvP

Joel: A myriad of fixes and balances, many of which are welcome. Most notably, skirmish and salvage will add a respawn punish for increasing deaths to prevent cheesy strategies and death loops with constant revives. Additionally, three of the most unrealistic bounties involving “sprees” now simply require kills!

Special Ammo is getting a major makeover. Guardians won’t drop it when they die, it will show up only once every 2 minutes, and you’ll receive 50% less (down to 25% from 50%). Teammates are encouraged to pick it up together, as the crate will behave much like Heavy Ammo in drop radius and pick-up time. Once it drops, if you die, it’s gone.

If you’re been itching to blame a team member for picking up Heavy Ammo early, today’s your lucky day: “Heavy ammo now lets everyone know which player or Faction picked up ammo”.

General

Greatly reduced the weighting of Blind Watch and Firebase Delphi in Control, Iron Banner, and Inferno Control playlists

Fixed a bug where a player that was killed by an enemy could commit suicide and be revived for points

Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving points for neutralizing a control zone

Fixed a bug where capture points were not properly disabled after the game ends

Added incremental revive timers to Skirmish and Salvage

Each time a teammate revives you, it takes longer before you can be revived again (currently +5s each revive)

Stopping Power now requires Shotgun kills instead of sprees

Target Practice now requires Hand-Cannon kills instead of sprees

Electrocutioner now requires Fusion Rifle kills instead of sprees

Maps

Anomaly: Added invisible physics over the pool table to keep people from hiding

Shores of Time: Added kill volume to the open edge of “A” cave in to keep players from hiding

The Burning Shrine: Moved the spawn point to fix camera view

Ammunition

Crates are now visible for all players long before they are available to pick up, with a countdown timer added to show when they will arrive

Guardians no longer drop Special ammo on death

Lowered the amount of Special ammo picked up from crates (from 50% to 25%)